I really dislike that WoW has caps on crafting based on your adventure levels. I wouldn’t mind it quite so much if you could choose multiple professions on your one character, but since you can’t that means that any alts who craft will eventually also have to level in order to maintain their crafting. If you happen to be a heavy crafter (as I am) this presents a problem. Even more so if you don’t have heirloom gear and leveling tends to be slow. I have four other characters who craft alongside my priest. The priest does tailoring and enchanting (a typical rout for cloth wearers) and is pretty close to 450 (460 in enchanting due to being a blood elf) in each. I also have an alchemist / herbalist (the Death Knight), a jeweler / inscription (the Shaman), and a skinner / leatherworking (the hunter). Then there’s my low level warlock who does mining / engineering. This craft has barely been leveled so I don’t really count her. The DK and shaman have been at their caps of 375 for quite some time while I attempt to catch up in adventuring in order to raise it. I need 65 in order for that to happen – and in the case of the DK I need 68 so that I can specialize.
Thankfully, it’s not such an impossible task. Burning Crusade dungeons reward a lot of experience, and Manos has been kind enough to run me through them. The Death Knight managed to reach level 65 yesterday, and with the help of a few hundred pygmy (fish) as well as some sarnite bars, I am resting at a comfortable 430 alchemy. I love the potions I can create, and I go through a lot of them. Wrath also introduced some neat items that each craft class can make specific to their own craft, typically for self use only. In the case of the alchemist these were endless potions of mana and health, as well as some really neat trinkets. The tailor makes some neat items to use on her pants, enchanting grants some ring enchants that are self only. I haven’t raised the jeweler / inscription high enough to discover what they make, but I’m excited about it. The shaman is resting at level 61 right now, so that’s four more levels before I can raise her current cap.
Whether or not I’ll level either character past 65 I’ve not yet decided. I tend to wander through each of my characters simply because I’m trying to avoid burnout in a game that leaves little for me to do aside from questing and dungeon running. Unlike EQ2 where I can take a ‘break’ from things by decorating or finding some other small task to do (working on aa, etc) there’s very little for me to do in WoW. I’ve found a few things that hold my interest when I don’t want to do the ‘regular’ grind, like working on harvesting craft items, and doing achievements, but eventually after playing and doing the same thing over and over I need to step away to another game for a short bit. This is the longest I’ve stuck with WoW consecutively, and I think that speaks volumes about how dedicated I am to eventually reaching level 80 on at least one character.
I’ve been taking a little break from the priest since she hit level 77, but once she earns some more rested experience I’m sure I’ll be back at it. Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!